Julie Andrews Gets Mean for Despicable Me

Julie Andrews is known for playing sweet matriarchal figures in movies, but this summer she’s going to be a real “wench.” According to the actress she’ll be appearing as a one of the bad guys in the animated film Despicable Me. I never thought I’d live to see the day when Mary Poppins got down and dirty, but Andrews had a lot of devilish things to say about her character…

I recently got the opportunity to speak to the screen legend, while she was out doing promotion for her upcoming film Tooth Fairy, and she spoke about her role in the upcoming film. She’s one of the many stars who lend their voices to the feature’s cast led by Steve Carell.

“I play Carell’s mom, and it is maybe the nastiest character I’ve ever played. She’s a bad woman with a wonderful attitude. She’s so self-involved, that she’s delicious. Her name is Marlena, they said I could name her. She’s the ugliest looking wench you’ve ever seen.”

She went on to say that she didn’t use her normal voice for the character, but got to switch it up a bit and give a mixture of every accent under the sun. They all come together to form the most wretched, nagging sound you’ve ever heard and she loved every minute of doing it. Andrews will always be a woman of virtue in my eyes no matter who she plays on screen, but I will get some laughs from watching her play a mean old lady.

Despicable Me hits theaters on July 9, 2010.

Can you imagine Julie Andrews starring as an evil character? Are you interested in hearing her performance?